Petrology 101: Bad Brains

This week’s study of all things rock will require a brief historical review, since Bad Brains appeared (at first) on the Washington D.C. hardcore punk scene in 1977, long before many of you were born.

Consisting of H.R. (vocals), Dr. Know (guitar), Daryl Jenifer (bass), and Earl Hudson (drums), Bad Brains quickly gained attention and notoriety for being an African American punk band, and dishing out what many people believed to be the hardest, fastest, meanest brand of hardcore they’d ever heard.

Bad Brains album 2 — *Rock for Light* (1983). Arguably their finest effort.

Meanwhile, the group branched out into reggae, jazz, and heavy metal. Following 1983’s Rock for Light (produced by Ric Ocasek), the band broke up only to reunite in 1986. They released two more records, I Against I and Quicksand, and split again. The original line-up has reformed and split several times since 1995, with their last recorded effort being 2007’s Build a Nation.

Good news for fans of Bad Brains – they’re back. In March 2011, it was reported that Bad Brains had begun work on new material for their follow-up to Build a Nation. The new album, (tentatively titled) Into the Future will be released on November 20, 2012.

The following photo has been floating around the Internet for several months to several years (depending upon who you ask), and appears to show H.R. and Brooke Shields sitting together on a couch, with Shields leaning over and lighting a bowl. On September 28, Gawker published the photo and waited for the inevitable. A spokesperson for Shields quickly denied that it’s her. But Bad Brains’ management issued a statement claiming that the photo indeed shows H.R. and Shields getting high together in 1983.

You can form your own opinion on its authenticity but if it really is Brooke Shields, she just got about 10,000 times cooler. Meanwhile, here’s a one-minute trailer for Bad Brains: Band in D.C..